The practice of making decisions and determining fates by casting lots dates back to ancient times. The Bible instructs Moses to take a census of Israel and divide its land by lot, and Roman emperors gave away slaves and property in lottery-like draws. Even the early Americans were into it, with Benjamin Franklin sponsoring a lottery in Philadelphia to fund his battery of guns to defend the city against the British and George Washington running one to finance the construction of a road over a mountain pass in Virginia.
Lottery, however, has always had its detractors, and critics have pointed to several disadvantages. The major ones are that the odds of winning are extraordinarily low and that playing the lottery encourages magical thinking and superstition, as well as compulsive gambling behavior that can have negative consequences for financial health and personal well-being.
Despite these disadvantages, the lottery has been remarkably successful at generating revenue. Its popularity has led to its expansion into new types of games, and advertising has become a central component of its operations. But this success has also brought its own set of problems, largely because state lotteries are run as business enterprises that are primarily focused on maximizing revenues rather than public welfare.
The result is that lottery officials often make policy in a piecemeal fashion, with little or no overall vision of how the system should evolve. As a result, many state lotteries have grown far beyond their original scope. The resulting patchwork of state and local policies has a number of negative implications for the public.
A second problem is that state lotteries tend to promote a vision of risk-taking that has little to do with real-world decision-making. They present an alluring fantasy of instant wealth that plays into a human desire to gamble, which is an inextricable part of our evolutionary heritage. The fantasy is reinforced by a constant stream of lottery-related advertising, which can be very effective in raising revenue.
Finally, a third problem is that state lotteries are regressive in nature, as they provide a greater share of the prizes to lower-income players than to wealthier ones. This regressivity is exacerbated by the fact that many people use funds earmarked for other purposes to purchase tickets, and can have severe consequences for their lives.
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This article was originally published in the March 2014 issue of Nautilus. Nautilus Members enjoy an ad-free experience. Subscribe now – just $3 a month or $11 a year!
The authors of this article do not own any share of the stock in AAPL, which was purchased in June 2013. They did receive royalties from the company for articles that they wrote. This is consistent with academic standards. The authors do not have any conflicts of interest that would bias their writing. This article is based on research that has been peer-reviewed and published in scientific journals.